The Guardian Spirit (The Guardians of Nine Heavens #2)

Chapter 1: Children's Gathering

"Well, children, gather round! We will not repeat the instructions twice!" one of the teachers, Mr. Brown, frowned. He was the strictest teacher in the whole Spirit School. "As you might know, we will not be able to accompany you into the Spirit Forest. We shall remain here at the border to be close just in case, but you will have to solve your problems on your own, so listen before it is too late!"

Fifteen-year-old children - the finishing class of the Intermediary Spirit School - carefully watched the teacher, even though they clearly seemed annoyed, especially boys.

"Spirits don't like large gatherings of people, so you will enter the forest group by group. The groups will consist of five people, as spirits can withstand such an amount. I will form groups according to the list. First ones to go are Timothy Biever, Lola Brown, Damon Bruck, Lucy Caldwell, and Rose Cassidy. Those I named - please step forward!"

The five children made a step forward. Among them was Lola - a red-haired black girl, sneering with arrogance - Mr. Brown's own daughter. Next to her stood an icy-blue-haired, brown-eyed, sullen girl, looking down at the ground. When all the other children seemed excited, she appeared to be rather indifferent.

"Very well, you five will go first. Now listen: stick together at all times. When you are deep enough into the forest, make a bonfire and sit around it so you could attract benevolent spirits. They admire light and are attracted to it. When you see spirits do not get scared by any means - they feel your fear and it makes them worked up. It is true we humans made peace with spirits long ago now, but you still must refrain yourself from awakening their inner instincts, especially if it is predator-natured spirits such as Bears or Wolves. And the last, but the most important warning - do not, by any means, even if your life is threatened, step into territories whose borders are marked with skulls on trees, because if your life is threatened, you can still find a way to escape, but if you step in those skull territories, it shall mean certain doom".

The children sweated seeing their teacher so worked up, and gulped in fear - those so-called Skull Territories were indeed so scary... It was told that evil man-eater spirits resided there.

"You got everything? Well then, Lola will be the leader of your group," Mr. Brown proudly looked at his young daughter who smirked with arrogance. The other group-mates of hers got irritated - such an annoying lass to be their leader, duh... it was only because Mr. Brown was her dad.

The icy-blue-haired girl seemed rather indifferent even now. She had barely heard Mr. Brown's instructions, so engulfed she was in her mysterious thoughts.

"Well then, depart!"

"Sure, dad!" Lola instantly took up in a bossy manner, "Let's go, guys!"

As they marched on, the voices of other classmates and teachers became fainter and fainter, and soon silenced completely. Only the dark forest was surrounding them now, with large trees, noisy crickets, hooting owls, and ominous aura.

"Oh boy, this feels rather scary..." Timothy Biever - a short boy with brown hair and glasses on - shivered a little, cautiously looking around.

"Duh, quit whining! This is the greatest opportunity we've been long waiting for!" Lola boldly stepped forward to show off her coolness. "We are finally eligible to acquire our own spirit guardians and form bonds! This is what our goal was from the very beginning since we enrolled in Spirit School!"

"Yeah, Lola's right in that," Damon Bruck - a black-haired boy holding a pocket-knife as if a street-fighter - spat aside.

"But what if some evil spirits catch us?" Timothy's legs trembled at the thought.

"Don't be silly! Evil spirits don't really step out of their territories".

"Actually, they do," Rose Cassidy - a long-red-haired nerdy girl with glasses - cut in, "They step out occasionally when they're on the hunt".

"Ohhh..." now shivers ran down Timothy's whole spine.

"Ugh, quit yapping like a scaredy-cat, Timothy!" Lola got irritated. "We'd better start making a bonfire as my father said. We're already deep enough".

"Yeah, let's do," Damon began collecting dry sticks on the ground.

The only one who did her job silently was the blue-haired girl, who hadn't interacted with her classmates yet. She was just calmly collecting sticks and adding them to the pile her friends had already made.

"That shall suffice," Lola instructed, and all of them sat around the pile, while Damon took out his lighter and made fire.

"Now what?" the blue-haired girl asked - she had finally decided to dive into the conversation too.

"Ah, Lucy?" the children started as they had only now heard her voice. Lola shrugged:

"I don't know... We wait?"

"Hey, while waiting, let's tell some scary stories! Whoever has the scariest one wins candy!" Damon showed lollipops he had brought along. 

"Wow, cool! Let's do!" Rose smiled, as she was a candy-lover.

"I'm in!" Lola grinned, "My story will scare you all!"

"Oh, that sounds fun," Lucy beamed kindly.

"I don't know, that sounds so... scary..." Timothy shivered again.

The children laughed, and then Damon spoke:

"Well, as I am the one to have proposed this idea, I'll go first..."

So the fun began.